Buy right, get an inspection, appraisal and PM and you're good to go.Follow the punch list below and you're going to be way ahead of the curve on mitigating risks.Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core.

It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it.

I want to mitigate as many mistakes as possible.

It allows investors to spread their assets across different types of investments, which can mitigate risks associated with market volatility.4.

If your leasing to people that have no fear of collections, judgement or garnishment, well ya better be johnny-on-the-spot with enforcement actions to mitigate loss exposure, and know you will be paying some water bills.     

@Brent ByersWhile you cannot shelter the taxes due upon sale of your property, you can take planning steps to mitigate them ... from how you hold the properties, to how/weather CCA is declared to deferring capital gains over 2-5 years using an instalment sale or vendor carried financing.

So your job is to figure out how to mitigate that risk, if possible.Credit is just one factor I consider.

Your attorney will have appropriate forms as well.https://www.trec.texas.gov/forms-and-contractsAfter doing additional research, I identified terms and provisions important to me to further mitigate my risk than whats in usual docs like Deed of Trust, etc. 

Tenant damage should be the #1 focus, and mitigation of that.

Passive products where you make modest but decent returns and get to add tax mitigation to the top of that return and yet stay completely passive.